


Not Enough Sleep

by LesbianArsenal



Series: JayRoyWeek17 [2]
Category: DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Titans (Comics)
Genre: JayRoy is in the past tense here, JayRoyWeek17, Late Night Conversations, M/M, Past Relationships, kind of sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-16 09:30:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11825892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LesbianArsenal/pseuds/LesbianArsenal
Summary: Dick and Roy have a late night conversation.Written for JayRoy Week, Day 2, "Sleep"





	Not Enough Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> This is a lot more sad than I meant it to be? I'll make up for it tomorrow.  
> Please excuse my mashing of continuities.  
> Hope you enjoy!

Roy sat in his new work room, alone surrounded by a couple of whirring RoyBots and half completed projects. He was sitting on a stool, hunched over a set of blueprints, his hand cramping as he gripped his pencil a little too hard while trying to hold the page down as well. The point of it broke off and Roy swore as he smacked his knuckles onto the metal table.

“Can’t sleep either, huh?” A familiar voice said from the doorway. Roy smacked his forehead onto the table in response. Roy could hear the other’s footsteps pad up to the table. “What are you working on?”

“Dick, please go away,” Roy mumbled, his mouth still pressed to the table. Dick only chuckled and tried to pry the half-conceived plans from under the archer’s face. Roy’s hand shot out to smack Dick’s hands away, but the other was too quick. Roy tried to smash his face harder into the table.

“What…” Dick started, apparently too confused to continue the question. Roy groaned and brought his face up to look at Dick. It was a sign of their long-standing friendship that Dick didn’t even blink twice at the massive bags under Roy’s eyes. Roy tried to snatch the plans from Dick, but he missed and nearly fell off his stool.

“It’s nothing,” Roy answered, now steadied back onto his stool, “Just doodles.”

Dick raised an eyebrow, but placed the plans back on the desk.

“Thought you were in the Blud tonight?” Roy asked, trying to get Dick attention from the blueprints.

Dick sighed dramatically and leaned back against the table, draping his torso across it. “Kate had wanted back-up for a case she’s been working, and since no one else was available I said I would,” Dick was now stretching his legs up to the ceiling, “Luckily it was quick, guy was getting sloppy, he knew he was being tracked.”

“And you decided to come bother me now?” Roy tried playfully pushing Dick off his work area, but Dick nimbly lifted himself out of the way using one hand. Roy rolled his eyes.

“You looked like you needed company,” Dick smiled as he pushed himself into a seated position on the table and crossed his legs.

Roy scoffed, “I thought you were at least the world’s third best detective.” Dick placed a hand over his heart in offense. “You should have figured out that’s the last thing I want.”

Dick clicked his tongue, a habit he must have picked up from too much time with Damian, “Maybe I’m just not the company you want.” Dick raised an eyebrow, as if challenging Roy to prove him wrong. Roy just stared his friend. “Oh, come on, I know you miss him, everyone in this tower knows you miss him.”

Roy shot his eyes to the floor, absentmindedly trying to cross his arms. He ended up just grabbing his shoulder with his other hand. He did miss him, but what was the point? Jason had ended things resolutely. And Jason didn’t seem to miss him at all, already running with a new trio of outlaws. Roy rubbed at his shoulder a bit before standing up from the table.

“Hey, I didn’t mean to…” Dick reach out his hand to his friend, “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have brought him up.” Roy waved off the hand as a RoyBot scuttled across the floor. He grabbed the plans from the table and rolled them out. Plans for a new helmet for Jason stared up from the table, along with a few scribbled notes for upgrades to Roy’s arm.

Roy sighed and looked at Dick. “This is what I do some nights, when I can’t sleep. I try to pretend I’m still in that warehouse in Old Gotham, and that he will come to me in the morning and remind me that I need to eat by setting a plate of bacon next to me.” Roy felt his eyes sting. He stopped trying to fight the tears months ago, but he had hoped he had run out. Dick shifted his eyes down to the floor and kicked his feet weakly into the air. “I know it’s not healthy, okay?”

“I’m not judging your mental health, Roy, I don’t think I have a place to.” Dick’s voice was firm, but Roy could hear the sincerity. “Look at me, I split my time too thin so I don’t have to think about my failed love lives.” Roy clicked his jaw in response and Dick sighed. “It wouldn’t hurt to try to reach out to him.”

Roy laughed, “You think I haven’t thought about it? What would I say, huh?” Roy laughed a bit more, his head feeling light and his balance feeling off. “Hey, remember me? That guy you left bleeding in a warehouse?”

“It’s not like Bruce was great at teaching us interpersonal skills,” Dick joked. Roy just glared. “He asked about you the other day.”

Roy felt his heart stop.

“Yeah, he asked about you when Bruce called us both to Gotham. Asked if you were…okay.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Roy snapped, his heart racing now, “Why didn’t you tell me when he asked?”

Dick shrugged and looked at his feet, “I don’t know, I guess…” Dick trailed off, his eyes focused on a RoyBot spinning itself in circles. Roy stared at his leader in disbelief. When Dick didn’t make any other implication that he would finish his sentence, Roy started to crumple the plans he had laid onto the table. He threw them at the ground, finding a home next to a few other crumpled papers and loose gears.

“Does he miss me?” Roy asked quietly after a few more beats of silence.

Dick sighed, “I don’t know.” Dick thought back to the conversation. “I mean, he asked me right before he left, like he hadn’t wanted to let himself.” Roy looked at his hand as he set it on the table. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said any-“

“What did you tell him?” Roy asked, silencing Dick’s unnecessary apology. Dick looked at Roy and then the floor. Roy raised an eyebrow. “How did you tell him I was?”

“I told him you weren’t getting enough sleep,” Dick answered. Roy was silent.

“Well, it wasn’t a lie,” Roy sighed. He tried to rub the haziness from his left eye, but failed. Dick and Roy sat there for a while in silence, both not sure what to say to the other. Roy eventually got up, stretched his arm up and his back out. “Go to bed Dick, you look tired.” Roy turned and walked out of the workshop, heading to the elevator to take him to his room.

Once there he popped the button on his jeans and stepped out of them. He stripped off his shirt and flopped onto his unmade bed. He stared at the ceiling. He clutched the blanket in his fist. He stayed like that until the Titans Alert sounded a few hours later.


End file.
